Back to Interviews

Q. What do you write? What publisher(s) do you write or have you written for?

Jane Porter: I write short contemporary series romance for Harlequin Presents, as well as special projects for Harlequin.

JP: My new book, Marco's Pride, is a February Harlequin Presents. The story is set in Italy--Milan and Capri--deals with the fashion industry, and is essentially a reunion romance with twist. It's a very intense story and after starting it, I was overwhelmed by the intensity. I honestly didn't know how to write a story like this, didn't know how to give the characters the book they deserved and finally I set it aside to write a light, sexy Presents called The Secretary's Seduction which won't be out in the US until 2005, and then I wrote other books.

A year passed and then it came to me. I knew what I needed to do to make Marco's Pride work. I finally understood the characters, understood the pain, the needs, the dreams and I sat down and wrote the book in 3 weeks. The story just poured out, chapter after chapter. Marco's Pride was accepted without revisions (a first in a long, long time!) and now readers get to have a look at it. I'm really excited.

JP: I just celebrated my four year anniversary with Harlequin! I got the call via an email from Presents Senior Editor, Tessa Shapcott, on January 20, 2000. That day changed my life. Becoming a published writer with Harlequin, working with such gifted and sensitive editors, receiving so much support from Harlequin has given me tremendous confidence. It's validated me as a writer and a woman.

JP: Oh not this question! <g> This is always bittersweet. I wrote forever befoe I sold. I started my first manuscript in college, submitted it to Harlequin in 1987, and wrote over ten books (twelve?) before finally selling my first in 2000. I'll let you do the math but you can see it was a long, hard road but I learned the meaning of tenacity.

JP: That first sale....wow. I talked a bit about it above, but selling The Italian Groom was magical. It was a tough write for me initially. I'd won the GH in 1998 but couldn't sell the book. I'd spent a year rewriting the manuscript for editor after editor and by the time I met Tessa Shapcott at a conference in Victoria in 1999, I'd lost tremendous confidence, wasn't sure what I could write, what I should write. At the Singletree Conference I had an editor appt with Tessa and because of her schedule we were able to talk for nearly 25 minutes and we talked about everything, what I'd done that hadn't worked, what I'd read, what I could do in the future, and she encouraged me to write something for her...for Presents...as she knew I used to read the line and years back had tried to write for them. That was April. It took me three months to finally put together a partial for her, and I only did it because National was coming up and I'd signed up for an appt with her and I couldn't very well go and have nothing to talk about. So I wrote the partial in a couple weeks, mailed it July 1st, and when I saw her a couple weeks later in Chicago she said it was on her desk. A month later I had a letter asking for the rest of the book, as well as giving me a couple suggestions of what to continue doing, and what to be careful not to do too much, and I wrote the rest of the book in a month, sent it off in mid September, and heard nothing until January when the email arrived. Even better than getting that first sale? There were no revisions. Tessa loved the book and we were off. I was a Harlequin author.

Q: Is there anything you wish you had known/done before you made that first sale or subsequent sales?

JP: You know, there's so much more I know now than I knew then, so much I wish I'd known, but you can only learn if you get educated... attend workshops, read craft books, research the business side, understand what drives the genre. Learning to write took me a long time, but what ate up all those years is that I didn't learn from my mistakes. I failed to identify why I wasn't selling, and therefore I didn't even know how to address my weaknesses.

Looking back, what would have helped most? Join RWA years earlier. RWA is amazing. It's a professional organization that supports writers, it offers unreal educational opportunities, provides a supportive environment for writers to grow and network, and challenges the writer to succeed through contests, awards, and other forms of recognition. I didn't know about RWA until the summer of 1996. I attended my first conference that summer in Dallas, discovered why Harlequin didn't want baseball heroes, politicians, artists (everything I'd been writing!), learned about popular hooks, learned that the business is even more competitive than I knew, learned that I wanted to publish even more than ever.

Since joining RWA I've served on the board of my local chapter, written articles for chapter newsletters, won the GH once, finaled another time (with the book I sold to Presents), sold my first book, begun to speak at conferences, and have written and sold 17 more books to Harlequin. RWA is home. It's been exactly what I needed and I'm so grateful I finally found a place where I could learn and grow.

In short, use every opportunity to learn and grow as a writer. Attend workshops. Read books. Listen to tapes. Get input. Enter contests if they offer feedback. Work with a critique partner. Submit your work. Take whatever constructive criticism you get and see how you can improve. Don't be afraid of working hard. Don't get discouraged. Writing well requires muscle and discipline. The more your write, the more you try to stretch as a writer, the better the writing gets.

And the secret to success isn't selling a book. It's being a great writer. You don't want to write a nice story...you want to write a fantastic story.

JP: Best advice I could give on craft would be learn it. Learn the fundamentals. Work on the fundamentals. Great writing isn't fancy. It's just smart. Your voice develops like any muscle--through use. The more you write, the more you try to write a good story, the more you edit and the more you work at revision, the clearer your voice becomes. Voice, and story power, is revealed as your writing grows stronger. I still work hard hard hard on my craft. I read craft books at night, study other authors that are selling well. I try to analyze my writing and see where I can improve. And even though I don't always agree with reviews, I read them and see what I can learn from them. I'm always asking myself, How can I improve? I see every book as a chance for me to get better. Every book is an opportunity to try something new and push myself harder. Maybe it's not an approach everyone would want to take, but I write because I'm a writer. The author stuff is a distant second.

Q: What is the best piece of industry advice can you give an aspiring author?

JP: Best industry advice? Hmmm. I've only been in this four years but I'd say courage is key. Be brave. Be tough. And then take risks. Write your vision, go for the story you carry inside yourself and write. And write. And write. And keep the faith.